L.L Bean Incorporation Case

L.L Bean Incorporation has been a successful company that has been around since 1912. The company achieved the status of a multimillion dollar company through strong, dedicated customer service and relationship with customers. The company's goal of doubling their numbers has always been successful and achieved for it shows in their financial numbers and sales revenue. But they have never been a company for risk taking, always sticking to what they know (mail orders) rather then moving into new territory. How do they maintain successful is by bettering the services and things they are good in. But the issue is now, with heavy competition from the competitors moving into different ways of distribution and expansion, what are the opportunities L.L Bean have and what should their next steps be. L.L Bean does not have many retailer stores or department stores that have their brand in a section and many of their competitors are targeting new and younger generations with more a fashion forward style to their outdoor clothing line. Another potential threat is that the current management wants to keep the authenticity of the brand from when it was started through extreme customer service and intense examination of products that do not fit to standard and a very easy return policy causing them to lose out on 2 million dollars of products at a certain point.

Some of the alternatives L.L Bean has for expansion is they can expand into department stores or malls through retail stores and possibly internationally as well. Many for their competitors have already done so like Eddie Bauer, Talbots and Land's End moving into retailer industry and making the store more commercial rather than keeping it mainly for those who are outdoor enthusiast privately through mail orders. By doing so they have the opportunity to reach out to more consumers that they haven't been able especially if they expand to retail store or department stores because consumers that do not have any knowledge of outdoor gears they can simple browse and see what the brand is all about. This can help advertise to more potential consumers for they will know what the brand stands for and keep it in the back of their mind or be intrigue in the brand and sign up for catalogs especially those in international countries for they may have never heard of the brand at all. Another potential way is focusing on manufacturing expansion. By doing focusing on this area they can save a lot of money as a company, because they would not have to buy from private vendors and can produce products under the watch of the company and ensure they are producing the products up to par with the company standard so when they test the products they do not have to damage out as much products saving them millions of dollars of products that go to waste. Another alternative is branching into different product lines or different markets. Competitors are now moving into different markets like providing a women's line in their company to target the women consumers because they are mainly the ones that mostly make purchases for their family. L.L Beam should consider targeting this market because most the transactions made for the company comes from women that make the purchases for their household. This can help generate more sales because since they are purchasing for their dads, husbands or son they can view stuff that cater to them and since they are already making a purchase they can purchase something for themselves at the same time. Another good way is to transition some of L.L Beam clothing to fit and attract the younger generation by making the clothes more fashionable but at the same time functional or a separate line can be created targeting a younger market which will translate into building relationship with new clients and more revenue. Another way for the company to expand is through social media and online shopping to communicate and speak to the younger generation and capture the younger potential clients. L.L Bean should consider moving into a different type of sales that is starting to very popular amongst the younger consumers, buying stuff through the company's home website. They should invest into creating a functional web site where consumers can search and shop online and delivered to their house. This could be another option if the company does not want to move into retail stores, by selling online it is similar to catalogs but rather just virtual and online where consumers can browse through products by their pictures and the process of selling would be similar to catalogs cause it would be distributed the same way if consumers were to order through catalogs. By having purchase orders through online will create convenience for the busy life of the younger generation to quickly view the company and product online instead to requesting for a catalog and wait for it to be sent or physically going to a store.

The issue with expanding into retail stores in malls and into departments is that it is costly to rent for a space and it could cause a big loss if the end result is a financial lost. It is only affective to open up retail stores or a section in departments if the geographic area is related or close to areas that require the outdoorsy equipment and gears or in a central area where a lot of the locals are interested or very involved in the outdoor life. If the brand open up in an area where many consumers have no knowledge or interest in outdoor lifestyle this would lead to failure to position which will lead to inability to sell and unable to communicate to any consumers. The issue with manufacturing expansion is the company would have to invest in building more manufacturing plants to produce more products which this also means developing more teams to specialize in production. Expanding manufacturing would lead to producing more different types of products and the that would mean a high need to train more production